


Kore

by Violetcarson



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology, Hellenistic Religion & Lore
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F, Femslash, hades and persephone femslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-25 00:38:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3790108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Violetcarson/pseuds/Violetcarson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>H/P femslash cyberpunk, and that's really all there is to say about that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kore

It was an old argument.

“I just don’t want to see you wasting your life.” If her mother were a different woman, the tone might have been tender, the intent loving. She wasn’t. It wasn’t either. Demeter’s frown stretched the perfectly applied red lipstick into a tight line, her arms folded tight enough that they might actually put a crease in the otherwise immaculate charcoal suit.

Persephone turned away. Disappointment-in-your-choices is an expression she’d seen before and she bores easily. Much more satisfying to assess the state of the office furnishings, all shades of muted green and earthy brown, straight lines and unforgiving surfaces.

Her mother sighed audibly. “Fine. Out. I have a meeting at 3 p.m. We’ll discuss this more fully this evening.”

“No we won’t Mom. There’s nothing to discuss.”

Demeter’s knuckles cracked in tandem and there was the thump of fist against mahogany. “Persephone,” Demeter began and Persephone stood up.

“I’ll see you later,” she said, glancing back at Demeter for a moment before turning away. Her mom was wearing one of her green silk shirts today, real silk, not imitation. The secession to vanity was rare. 3 p.m. must have been with someone with power.

She pushed past the glass double doors, the opening slicing the SitoCorp logo in two, and escapes past her mother’s various secretaries into the elevator. The long ride down to the ground floor provided a view through the glass wall of the elevator into the atrium, which was open all the way to the top floors. Everything was steel and glass with earth-toned accents. The elevator opened and Persephone headed straight for the exit.

Halfway across the atrium, dotted here and there with faceless suits moving toward or from other doors and elevators, the glass doors of the entrance swept open to admit a party of five. Four suits with buzzcuts and sunglasses and obvious bulges on their left arms, politely concealed shoulder holsters, surrounded a fifth suit. This one was a woman, short, dark skin, vibrantly red hair cropped and spiky. Her attire was black on black and her heels clicked with each step, precise and in perfect time, each step measured. 3 p.m., without a doubt. Persephone didn’t pause, and passed the group in the middle of the floor. As they drew even, the red-headed woman’s eyes locked onto hers, less then five feet away.  They were an unsettling vibrant shade of gold, an obvious surgical modification. The woman’s lips curled up into a smile that threatened.

Then Persephone was past the woman and out the front doors and in the Garden. The Garden surounding SitoCorp headquarters was the only contribution to the business Persephone could claim. Demeter had given her control of its design years back, and she spent the majority of her free time planning and maintaining the beds and trellises that surrounded the entirety of the building. Ostensibly the grunt work was supposed to go the army of gardeners her mother employed for the purpose, but Persephone preferred to do as much as possible herself, mostly because she actually had nothing more diverting to do. Paying special attention to the genetically modified flower species on display, the natural varieties extinct now in the majority of the world was at least more satisfying than finding new and creative ways to spend her mother’s money.

She went straight for the lilies which took up a quarter acre along the northeast edge of the Garden. A recently developed variety had been transplanted the week previous and she wanted to check its progress. As with most of the modified flower species, these lilies were an unnatural shade, turquoise bleeding into an electric blue center, and an unnatural size, roughly the diameter of a hubcap. They were positioned beneath a trellis with orange and cyan petaled Silver Lace vines twining up and through.

Most of the plants had made the transfer well, but one close to the trellis seemed to be reacting negatively to another nearby plant, and was starting to wilt. She dictated notes on possible improvements to the bed to her tablet as she examined the plants, including changes to watering schedules and fertilizer compounds. Through the scattered bright flowers of the Silver Lace vines, the top Greenarium, lined with synthetic UV lights, hummed quietly, barely audible over the birdsong that filled the Garden. One of her greatest successes was introducing several living bird species to the controlled environment without negatively impacting any of the flora, so the birdsong was real. As a bonus, this particular Greenarium that that housed the Garden now qualified for Preserve status, which had at least got some approval from her mother for the PR benefits. SitoCorp had lately received significant bad press for the inhumane methods for cultivating stock animals in some of their mixed species Greenariums. Her mother’s reputation was maintained and Persephone had real birdsong. It was the most they’d agreed on a single subject in years.

She’d stopped making notes and was sitting beneath the trellis, studying and being studied by a beady-eyed finch when she realized she wasn’t alone. She turned slowly. The red-haired woman stood in the shadow underneath a tree behind her, leaning against the smooth white bark. Persephone tensed, preparing to stand, and the woman spoke up. “Don’t bother running off now. If you move, one of my friends here will be forced shoot you. I don’t think either of us would enjoy that.” She smiled.

“You’re threatening me on SitoCorp grounds? Do you know who I am?” Persephone demanded, standing slowly.

“Of course. You’re my leverage.”

Persephone kept her face blank, stony. “Who do you think you are?”

The woman straightened, walking slowly towards her. She stretched out a hand to the lilies, running a finger down one massive petal as she passed. “I’m a business associate of your mother’s, only business isn’t going too well right now. See, Demeter and I are having a bit of a disagreement. She supplies this great country with its food via her ingenious Greenariums and the various modifications her company makes to the things in them, and I supply her with the helping hands she needs to get the less savory aspects of the job done. Only, she’s not giving me quite the amount we agreed on, and if I can’t pay my employees the money I promised them, then nobody will be around to help manufacture the product. I can’t in good conscience have my employees stop doing their jobs. So I need a different way to convince her.” The woman was now almost toe-to-toe with Persephone, and she lifted a hand to run it lightly down her cheek, those unnatural golden eyes snapping. Persephone turned away from the touch.

“So, I figure you come with me for a little while, down below, and after she stews in her panic for a bit maybe she’ll be more amenable to holding up her end of the deal.”

Persephone refused to meet her gaze. “Down below? You mean to the slums beneath the plate? I’ve never—“

“Never left the perfect little utopia your mom and her friends had built up here on top so they’d never have to see the good old working class folk down below? Now why am I not surprised?”

Persephone turned to her again to glare. “Why should I go with you?”

The woman pretended to consider. “Well, maybe because I’ve got a small army of hackers currently wreaking havoc with your mom’s security system and four armed guards ready to tote your drugged and bound body out the front gate while no one is the wiser. I’d prefer it if you chose to come on your own though. Less messy that way. I can guarantee your safety during your entire stay with me. It’d be bad for business otherwise, your mom will figure out pretty soon where you’ve gone, and I plan to maintain my contract with her for as long as it’s profitable. So what do you say? Would you like to walk out of here?”

Persephone lifted her chin, and said nothing. The woman sighed and motioned lazily behind her. “Well, at least I offered to do this politely.”

Persephone didn’t move as the man approached. “Who are you?” she asked the woman, before he closed on her.

The woman’s grin was feral. “You can call me Hades,” she said, and the bodyguard lifted an unobtrusive object shaped like a pen to her arm.

In that moment, Persephone could have chosen to scream for help. 

She didn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this a while back. Originally it was meant to be a longer story, but I think I'm going to leave it as a one-off deal. 
> 
> I always appreciate feedback.  
>  
> 
> [Hang out with me on tumblr.](clearancecreedwatersurvival.tumblr.com)


End file.
